Social Media Tips: Trust and Transparency

Trust. What does it take to create trust, and how can trust be taken away?

And for that matter, what is social media trust? And how does social media transparency help or hinder building trust and engagement in social media?

You may have heard the term “transparency” used in relation to business branding or identity marketing, but what does the concept of transparent marketing mean, and how can you be sure to establish trust with your clients, customers and prospects?

When you’ve lost trust, you can bet you’ve lost business.

Recently I’ve been receiving a series of emails, on a almost daily basis from my Internet service provider, that imply that my computer and network have been compromised. At first, I disregarded this as a sales attempt… After all, I am running hordes of security on my network, and the op sys I am using is touted as being fairly stable and resistant to virus infiltration.

But as I started to think about it, I realized that if this was a sales attempt, it is preying on a vulnerable market. So many people have computers today who did not grow up with them like Generation C is… To this older an newly connected generation, computers are still something of a mystery! Case in point, I recently got one of the new ipads for my mother who is 87. She absolutely loves the ipad interface and marvels at what the device can do,…. She’s unusual for her generation, howeve she is not as aware of hacker attacks or viruses as someone who is Generation C or even Gen Y.

So, the email about viruses made me angry.

I am sure this was not the result the company that sent it to me had hoped for. They more likely were anticipating that I’d be thankful for the heads up. But recently, I’ve had a malevolent person who has been stalking me, and in addition to my system potentially being hacked, I am now concerned that this individual may may have done something to my system when he had access to it.

But was my service provider preying on my insecurity? For a megalith company, that I respect, and who I have as a service provider to stoop to sending me false allegations that my Mac may have a bot or key logger really miffed me.

Question is – do I trust that the service provider is truly attempting to be helpful, or do i disregard and figure it’s an attempt to add additional service fees to my monthly invoice?

Trust. If I trusted the service provider, there would be no question. Like the Facebook trust experience, where multiple changes have disrupted or opened up our privacy settings, the Internet and social media marketing has elevated the attempts on the part of undesirable or poorly informed suppliers, especially those who are adept at positioning themselves as “experts”. They prey on our fears and use double talk to obfuscate their meaning, The plethora of these types has given rise to our questioning whether these are actually attempts to help versus attempts to sell. As it turns out, I did decide to have this third party evaluate what is going on with my systems…. They are immersed in my Mac as we speak and they’ve started to unravel things.

How much simpler things would have been for them, had they established a level of trust first. Then there would be no question that the first sign of trouble was real. As it was, this sale took 4 phone calls to 7 individuals including their security division before I “trusted” what they were telling me, that’s 7 people who were tied up taking to a prospect when really, and ideally, this should no have had to escalate to that level. If there is a lesson, it is to treat your brand and your customers with value, be truthful, and don’t think that a cleverly veiled sales approach will not be recognized as such by your prospects.

Certainly it’s important to aim at giving value, but it’s equally important to refrain from disguising your true intent. In this instance, had the service provider simply shared that there is a paid version and an unpaid version of support in a clear manner, I may have jumped inboard sooner. Have you had experiences where you were not sure whether the offer was genuine or a sales attempt? Do you have call to action offers that may cross the line, or have you experience one on a site you’ve visited?

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About Jody Raines

Jody Raines is the President of WebMarCom. She also rides a Harley, is scuba certified and has two amazing Belgian Malinois and a Pekingese. Her dogs have both won AKC Champion titles, as well as International Championship titles. She actively trains in obedience, agility, tracking and volunteers with K9 Search and Rescue.

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